Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

The latest news and updates about the Dhamma Wheel forum.
Locked
User avatar
Annapurna
Posts: 2639
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:04 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Annapurna »

christopher wrote: I'm probably one who has been quite guilty of meta-discussion. Just as some folks have difficulty understanding why it's not helpful to belittle fellow members i don't quite understand yet how meta-discussion is a major problem.
:
Yes, I have the same "problem".

I was brought up to NOT look away when someone else is being unfairly attacked, but to do my best to deescalate the situation, especially when no staff is around to take care of it.

It's about protecting the weaker. And anybody who is being attacked is in a vulnerable position.


So naturally I can hardly keep my fingers still when I see it happening.

Of course it requires some skills that I am still in the process of optimising.

Ben taught me a new word: "Peer moderation"!

Now, why should that necessarily be a bad thing?

Isn't that what is happening in off line discussions all the time?

Somebody gets a blow. A friend tries to ward it off.

That's what friends do, don't they?

And Buddhists should be friend to anyone.

So if I see that XY is mocked or belittled, am I to keep my mouth shut then, or what am I to do?

My friends, I would feel like a bloody coward if I left it to someone else. Who may not even be around.

Delegating responsibility is such a dangerous thing....and I am honestly not used to it.

Delegating can become a habit, and eventually you will watch a lady getting robbed on the street, or worse! and everybody else looks away and waits for "staff" to deal with it.

It starts in the little things, and grows to big things.

So, in a way, my own conscience will always overrule board rules.

That's why I am a difficult member at times, my apologies.
PeterB
Posts: 3909
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:35 pm

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by PeterB »

Sometimes...in fact quite often what is perceived as an attack on a person, is actually a defense of Dhamma...

The problem with meta discussion is not that is a heinous crime in itself...its that it is self proliferating.

Before you know it half the forum is occupied by people voicing entirely subjective reactions not to Dhamma, but to the tone of voice in which the discussion is being held...but that is trivial and subjective and a substitute for the hard work of internalising Dhammic concepts and practising skillful means.
As Cooran's sig says " The problem is you think you have time "....we really havent. Even the youngest and fittest really hasnt. Lets all get a bit less sensitive on our own behalf and that of others. Theres work to do.
User avatar
Annapurna
Posts: 2639
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:04 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Annapurna »

Sometimes...in fact quite often what is perceived as an attack on a person, is actually a defense of Dhamma...
Good point, Peter, and when I see THAT happening, I naturally become aware of how much this person appreciates the Dhamma, which is quite moving.

In "teaching" others, the teacher must pick up the student where he is at.

I admit, I am a hard nut to crack, because I am afflicted with pride.

I lack some humbleness, which is probably why I often type "humble mess".


Freudian slip? :jumping:
User avatar
Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Ben »

Hi Anna

We're all responsible for making Dhamma Wheel an optimal place whether our intention is for Dhamma discussion or hanging out with people for whom the Dhamma is a central element in their lives. I like peer moderation as a concept because it recognizes that DW is much more than the admin and mod team and that like the discussions that occur on DW, the culture of the board is a product of all those who contribute. Peer moderation demonstrates a maturity of the board when members feel a sense of ownership and step in. And that could just be by being a valued contributor, of demonstrating exemplary behaviour or alerting the admin/mod team (report function) if something requires examination or helping to keep topics focused. My admin and mod colleagues have lives outside of DW, and so we can't always be here. And what's more, I don't think you guys need us here all the time.
I know this thread is about how we, as the admin/mod team, can make DW a better place. But I also think there is so much we can all do.
Anyway, they're just my thoughts...

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
andre9999
Posts: 465
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:04 pm
Location: Milwaukee, WI, US
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by andre9999 »

I don't like peer moderation because a few people will inevitably start acting like hall monitors, finding identity and self-esteem in making sure everyone follows the rules exactly. In my short time here, too many threads have spun off-topic into a long series of posts about you're-not-doing-it-right, that always seems to require a mod to step in.

The current system seems to work just fine.
Nyana
Posts: 2233
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:56 am

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Nyana »

Ben wrote: My admin and mod colleagues have lives outside of DW
Tilt has a life?... :tongue:

:oops:
User avatar
Dan74
Posts: 4528
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:12 pm
Location: Switzerland

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Dan74 »

Ñāṇa wrote:
Ben wrote: My admin and mod colleagues have lives outside of DW
Tilt has a life?... :tongue:

:oops:
Yes, I am confused too.

I thought Tilt was an AI program that is always online with an up-to-date database of Buddhist knowledge. A sort of a Buddhist Marvin...

Image
_/|\_
User avatar
Annapurna
Posts: 2639
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:04 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Annapurna »

andre9999 wrote:I don't like peer moderation because a few people will inevitably start acting like hall monitors, finding identity and self-esteem in making sure everyone follows the rules exactly. In my short time here, too many threads have spun off-topic into a long series of posts about you're-not-doing-it-right, that always seems to require a mod to step in.

The current system seems to work just fine.
The system has changed???
User avatar
andre9999
Posts: 465
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:04 pm
Location: Milwaukee, WI, US
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by andre9999 »

Annapurna wrote:The system has changed???
I didn't realize that everyone is calling this "peer moderation". My point is that I like things well enough as they are.
Nyana
Posts: 2233
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:56 am

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Nyana »

Dan74 wrote: I thought Tilt was an AI program
Image
PeterB
Posts: 3909
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:35 pm

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by PeterB »

I think whether humorous or passive aggressive that is enough Tilt bashing.
:guns:
User avatar
christopher:::
Posts: 1327
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:56 am

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by christopher::: »

Last edited by christopher::: on Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"As Buddhists, we should aim to develop relationships that are not predominated by grasping and clinging. Our relationships should be characterised by the brahmaviharas of metta (loving kindness), mudita (sympathetic joy), karuna (compassion), and upekkha (equanimity)."
~post by Ben, Jul 02, 2009
Nyana
Posts: 2233
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:56 am

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Nyana »

PeterB wrote:I think whether humorous or passive aggressive that is enough Tilt bashing.
Merely a bit of jocular frivolity. But point taken.

All the best,

Geoff
User avatar
andre9999
Posts: 465
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:04 pm
Location: Milwaukee, WI, US
Contact:

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by andre9999 »

PeterB wrote:I think whether humorous or passive aggressive that is enough Tilt bashing.
Commence the Peter bashing!
User avatar
mikenz66
Posts: 19932
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:37 am
Location: Aotearoa, New Zealand

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by mikenz66 »

andre9999 wrote:
PeterB wrote:I think whether humorous or passive aggressive that is enough Tilt bashing.
Commence the Peter bashing!
Image
Locked